For several years, I’ve explained why I would keep purchasing the “perfect” precious metal on every correction. And each time, as if on cue, a mainstream article comes out about a “gold bubble.” (See Sunday, December 5, 2010, Orange County Register.) The “balloon-about-to-burst” analogy has been in play since $1000, $1100, $1200, $1300 and now… $1400 per [...] Continue Reading...
Investors looking for safer haven investing outside of Europe have been generating better risk-reward results in the U.S. What’s more, they’ve been doing even better with smaller-sized companies. For example, the Bespoke Group noted that U.S. small- and mid-cap benchmarks have more than doubled the S&P 500 in 2010. Average profit growth in these indexes approximate 20%+ year-over-year. It also appears that micro-cap [...] Continue Reading...
“Beat the Market” ETFs, Foreign ETFs, Consumer ETFs, Commodity ETFs/ETNs Click here to listen the show: 12-5-2010 Continue Reading...
After a decade when Emerging Market ETFs far outperformed their developed market cousins, should investors expect the long-term trend to continue? Brazil, India, China, South Korea — are these still the markets with the most capital appreciation potential? In a word where Europe struggles to overcome a sovereign debt crisis, the U.S. prints money electronically and Japan endlessly fights deflation, perhaps investors [...] Continue Reading...
Head-strong Republicans demand permanent extension of the Bush-era tax cuts. Lame-duck Democrats look to stick it to the “wealthy.” All the while, the political game of chicken keeps the American people… as well as significant portions of its financial markets… in a continuous state of high anxiety. What should one do about dividend-paying stocks today if capital gains go up to [...] Continue Reading...
The Canadian stock market has handily outperformed the U.S. stock market over 3, 5 and 10 years. That’s not bad for our neighbors to the north. With 33 million residents closer to full employment targets than the U.S., far superior energy resources, and a negligibe trade deficit, it isn’t difficult to understand why many invest in the iShares MSCI Canada (EWC) fund. Yet GDP growth [...] Continue Reading...
The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq offer 3 different ways to look at the U.S. market’s health. Even with the monumental start to December trading, however, none of the broad market indexes are hitting new 52-week peaks. (Not yet, anyway.) It’s not like certain sectors haven’t been pulling their weight. SPDR Select Energy (XLE) and SPDR Select Consumer Discretionary (XLY) have [...] Continue Reading...
Economists have been impressed with the comsumer spending on both Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Similarly, technical anlaysts have been intrigued by the S&P 500’s ability to hold the fort at the 1175 mark. Will the retail momentum translate into bigger profits for Stock ETFs? Can the fast start to December be the catalyst to send Sector ETFs to brand new [...] Continue Reading...
